First Open Call

FIRE+ online interoperability and performance test tools to support emerging technologies from research to standardization and market launch. The standards and innovations accelerating tool.

Type of action:

Research and Innovation Action (RIA)

Project website address:

www.finterop.eu

Community Engagement

The F-Interop Open Call is designed to attract projects that develop innovative testing tools and test designs around the F-Interop platform. These applications may be for the purpose of validating the platform or extending the existing capabilities of the platform with new features and capabilities, new interfaces or new tools.

In addition to the tool and test development projects described above, the open call will also select three SMEs to conduct plugtest events that will engage even more members of the interoperability and standards development communities.

F-Interop eligible third parties

Eligible persons and entities

Support from the F-Interop open calls programme will be provided to the following categories of persons and entities:

Single European mid-caps, SMEs and Micro SMEs as defined in EU law: EU recommendation 2003/361,

Web entrepreneurs and individual sole-traders,

European secondary and higher education establishments, research institutes (this including also research arm of large corporate organizations) and other not-for-profit research organisations,

Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) such as ETSI, IETF, ITU, IEEE and W3C,

Eligible countries

Support from the F-Interop open calls programme will be provided to the persons and entities included in the above categories and established in one of the following countries:

A EU Member State,

A country associated to the H2020 research programme, such as: Iceland, Norway, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, Israel, Moldova, Faroe Islands, Ukraine, Tunisia, Georgia, and Armenia (the list is subject to change)1,

Switzerland as a country contributing “substantially to the financing of the F-Interop research project”2,

Any other non-EU country, only if self-funded and when a clear demonstration that the skills and the impact contributed to the F-Interop open call programme cannot be provided by persons and entities in any of the countries above.

The following tables provides a summary of eligibility criteria per given proposal category (each category detail is provided below). In particular with sustainability we require submitted proposal to highlight how maintenance of developed tools and test designs will be maintained after the end of the awarded project and as part of the overall F-Interop platform.

What will be funded

The financial support to third parties in the F-Interop open call will support R&D for 4 categories of projects:

New testing tools: F-Interop will select up to three (3) projects to develop new testing tools that extend the F-Interop capabilities, with funding of €100K to the third party and an additional €10K to an existing consortium partner to support integration with the F-Interop platform. Funding will cover SW development and HW-SW integration and enablement of access to F-Interop testbeds. The outcome of this kind of experiment is an integrated testing tool on the F-Interop platform.

New test design: F-Interop will select three(3) projects to develop new interoperability tests designs and specifications based on F-Interop , with funding of €60k to the third party and an additional €10K to an existing consortium partner to support integration with the F-Interop platform. This category will target standardization communities including ETSI, IETF, ITU, IEEE and W3C communities. This kind of project will require enablement for access to broad range of competencies. Funding will cover test design and development and HW-SW Integration into F-Interop platform as necessary. The outcome of this kind of experiment is a new test design.

SME F-Interop assessment reports: F- Interop will allocate 10 small grants to SMEs for them to test the F-Interop platform and provide a written report on potential improvements, with funding of €10k each. Funding will cover testing on the F-Interop platform and preparation of a report. The outcome of this kind of experiment is a report detailing potential improvements to the F- Interop platform. The Consortium will fine tune the detailed requirements and expected contributions from the beneficiaries of the open call during the first year in line with the project's development.

Plugtest Events: F- Interop will select one or more third parties to conduct three remote, online plugtest events. The objective of these events will be to involve interop communities to adopt and provide feedback on F-Interop tools for technical and/or syntactical Interoperability tests. €10,000 will be awarded to the third party selected to run an event and another €10,000 will be allocated to the consortium partner that supports this plugtest event. Funding will cover the planning, promotion and delivery of each event, the follow-up with a survey and preparation of a report detailing the results of all the interop tests conducted during the plugtest.

Total budget

Total budget allocated for the call is 700K (23% of project budget), of which 610K will support 19 projects, while 90K will be used to assist consortium partners to deliver technical support for plugtests and new tools integration.

Key criteria

In order to qualify for financial support through the F-Interop Open Call Programme, proposals must meet the following evaluation criteria:

Alignment: Projects must align with one or more of the supported activity categories defined above.

Excellence: Projects must demonstrate a clear set of objectives aligned with the definition of the F-Interop open call and with the general objectives of the ICT-30 Call

Impact: Proposals must define a clear set of deliverables aligned with the objectives of the open call and the specific category to which the proposal relates. Proposals must also include a clear budget, detailing the overall project cost, the amount of funding requested and how it will be spent. This budget must represent good value for money in the opinion of the evaluation panel selected to evaluate the open call applications.

Implementation: Applicants must provide credible evidence that the project delivery team have the necessary skills and management experience to be able to deliver the project in the timescales and budget specified